488 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Jan. 15, 1885, 
1882-83, 1,500 carcasses of deer were shipped to Boston 
from Maxine, principally trom the Machias section, Mr. 
Stillwell notified Supt. Tucker, of the Maine Central Rail- 
road, of this fact, and he at once issued orders to stop all 
illegal transportation. Itwas stopped. The superintendent 
appreciated the damage to railroad travel by the destruction 
of fish and game by wholesale out of season. 
Our commissioners have just seized a lot of black ducks 
which had been netted. The heads and necks had been 
punched uniformally, with holes to represent shot holes. 
No: holes in the body. The crops contained fresh corn. 
The commissioners have had most trouble with men of 
means from Massachusetts, principally Boston, who have no 
regard for the laws of God or man, and care not for expense, 
proyided they can shoot a few deer or caribou, but especially 
moose. One such citizen, a few weeks since, shot four 
moose, entitled to but one, The detectives were after him, 
and he departed hastily with neither head nor horns. The 
commissioners hold the trophies and hope to know when 
the gentleman sportsman comes into the State again. The 
Indian murder at Moosehead was by one of this party’s 
enides, AUSTIN, 
INDIANA NOTES. 
| FX HE quail season in this State closed Dec. 20, with plenty 
of birds left, We have had some snow and very cold 
weather, but not enough to diminish the supply. Under 
favorable conditions next year’s crop of quail will be the 
largest known for six years, , 
Partial albinoism is becoming quite common among the 
English sparrows in this city. 
While quail hunting, Oct. 28, I saw violets in bloom, and 
on Dec. 9, after the earth had been frozen and covered with 
snow for a week, I killed a small snake in a meadow. 
A friend, whose word cannot be doubted, informs me that 
several times during the summer he saw a nest containing 
twenty-seven quail eggs, and that all were hatched. 
Hoosier. 
TNDIANAPOLIS, Dec, 31. 
THE GAME DEALERS. 
HERE was a meeting of game dealers in this city last 
Thursday at the New York Mercantile Exchange, No. 
186 Reade street. Among the firms represented were M. 
Travis & Co., C. Maly & Co., Phillips, Henry & Co., Drohan 
& Powell, Gilman & Go., French & Oo., Shimer & Laing, 
H. Dowin & Co., H. Josephy, A. & M. Robbins, Knapp & 
Yan Nostrand, Chamberlain, Hartman & Co,, Thurston & 
Moore, R. B. Poucher, Henry Combe’s Sons and N. Dur- 
ham, A temporary organization was formed by the election 
of N. R, French as chairman, and Theodore P. Gilman, sec- 
revary. Mr, French said: 
Twenty-five years ago, when I was in business in Barclay street, 
game dealers found that doing business within the law was almost as 
hazardous (for it was almost impossible fo make money) as doing it 
in defiance of the law. Combined effort enabled us to have the law 
modified. In some respects the game laws of the State are all right. 
In others they are unjust and absurd. The killing of venison is 
allowed in August and September, when nobody wants it, when it 
ean’t well be brought to market and when much of what is killed is 
allowed torotin the woods. After Dec, 1 deer cannot be shot and 
after Jan. 1 venison can’t be sold—just when itis wanted, The same 
may be saidot quail. Ths sale ci quail is prohibited after Jan. 31, 
The supply may be greater thanthe (emand. There may be thous- 
ands of dozens in the market on Jan. 31. What is to become of them? 
According to law, they must be destroyed in some manner. Accord- 
ing to the law, if a man buys a dozen quail on Jan. 31, he must cook 
them aud eat them on the same day. If he keeps six of them for din- 
ner on the next day, he is liable to be fined $6 and imprisoned for six 
days. Now this can’t be right. Lam in favor of protecting our game, 
This association desires to work in harmony with those who have 
labored to protect our game. It is more to our interests than to the 
interest of sportsmen that game should be protected. The food ques- 
tion is far more serious than the question of sport, and all we wantis 
protection for ourselves as well as real protection for our game. 
Mr. Durham said that the game laws of the State were 
made ‘for the pleasure of dudes who spend their vacation in 
the Adirondacks in Angust, and shoot does with uaders full 
of milk and fawns running by their sides.” .A number of 
others spoke of ‘‘the urgent necessity that exists for amend- 
ing the game laws.” Several expressed the opinion that not only 
would all the game dealers of the city jnin the organization, 
but that hotel and restaurant keepers would also be glud to 
juin bands in the movement. 
N. R. French, Jacob Shaffer, John Drohan, J. V. Inglee 
and N, Durham were appointed a committee to draft a con- 
stitution and by-laws. ‘They were instructed to inform all 
game dealers and others whose interests were identical of the 
action taken. 
{t is not the intention of the Game Dealers’ Association to 
limit membership in it to the city. Mr. Shaffer and others 
thought that it would be better to extend the associution 
throughout the Union, This idea gained ground quickly 
and will be put in operation without much loss of time. The 
membership fee will probably be $10. 
The game dealers of the Mercantile Exchange met yester- 
day to the number of about fifty, at the rooms of the Hx- 
change, for the purpose of further completing the arrange- 
ments for the formation of an American Association for the 
Protection of Game, Game Dealers and Consumers. Hyery- 
thing was cut and dried inadvance of the meeting, and after 
the reading of the minutes a list of half a dozen or more 
vice-presidents were read and accepted. Mr. N. R. French, 
the chairman, read an address defending the aims and objects 
of theembryo association, and charging that the present 
laws were for the ostensible protection of game at theexpense 
of the legitimate dealers in the same, the result being that 
the State of New York suffers for the profit of surrounding 
States. Deer, he claimed, was legally killed when it was 
mot wanted and while the does were in milk, while in Janu- 
ary, when the meat was yet good and no reason of a breeding 
sort to be alleged. Under pretense of protecting prairie 
chickens which did not exist as a game bird in the State of 
New York, alaw was passed making game dealers felons. 
The possession of quail even from Keypt was regarded as a 
menace against the birds yet remaining in this State. The 
way of administering the law is almost as erratic as the law 
itself, and after a long lapse of time there was a sudden show 
of energy. Mr. French instanced the quail-eating feat of 
last season, when quail was eaten publicly outof season, and 
yet a search warrant found in February a number of barrels 
of qnail, and for them a judgment of $63,500 at first 
sought, though it was at a later date reduced to $6,000, and 
so secured. In one case there was an open violation, while 
in the other, a consignee having no ownership in the bird, 
was brought into court and severely punished. 
Secretary Gilman read a draft of a constitution providing 
a corps of officers and an annual meeting each January, with 
initiation fee of $10, and yearly fee of $5. This was adopted 
and a nominating committee made up of Messrs. Powers, Me- 
Dougall and Okie to name permanent officers. The follow, 
ing were reported and made permanent officers for the cur- 
rent year: President, N, R. French; Vice-President, John 
Drohan; Secretary, Thos, P, Gilman; Treasurer, W. J. 
Phillip. Executive Committee, J, V. Inglee, Jas. B Laing, 
G. Higley, N. Durham, John Elsey. Judy & Co. of St. 
Louis wrote advocating the enactment of a nafional game 
law, and a similar letter was read from Boston. 
PHILADELPHIA NOTES. 
ae West Jersey Game Protective.Society held its annual 
meeting last week at Gloucester City, The report 
of the treasurer shows that expenditures have been made 
during the past year amounting to $1,034, and that there is 
in the treasury the snug amount of $1,399.60, The game 
committee appointed for the ensuing year.is composed of FP. 
Klenitz, Esq., and Messrs. W. Weber and Chas. Foster, 
$1,000 will be expended this year for the purchase of quail, 
to be liberated in the spring in Camden, Gloucester, Cum- 
berland, Salem, Atlantic and Cape May counties, which are 
the districts over which the society has jurisdiction. 
It was decided at this meeting to offer and pay a reward 
of fifty cents for every hawk killed in either of the aboye 
named counties. The report of game detectives Ore and 
Platt was a yery interesting one, and showed that during 
the months of September and October (the rail and reedbird 
season) they had overhauled two hundred boats, and arrested 
five persons for shooting without a license. Nearly twelve 
hundred snoods had been destroyed, and several pheasant 
fences torn down, They reported that the woods near 
Clayton, Glassboro, Malaga and Franklinyille had been the 
field of work of numerous poachers, which had given them 
much trouble, A resolution was passed dispensing with the 
special officers after the 17th of January. 
Game was reported very plentiful still in the six named 
counties of New Jersey, aud much will be left over for 
breeding purposes. 
tective Society is ina most flourishing condition, and the 
organization is keeping up its reputation as that of a live 
association for protection of game. 
The flats at Havre de Grace, Md., are coyered with 
stranded ice which has come from the Susquehanna River 
since the break up of the gorge up the stream, and conse: 
quently duck shooting is not inviting there, Fowl are scarce 
in our Delaware River, and local gunners’ have about quit 
until March. 
Your correspondent learned during a late trip to Baltimore 
that many point shooters are discarding the old-fashioned 
blinds of brush and are adopting a box built much after the 
model of a battery blind. These boxes are moored within 
the distance from land prescribed by law, the shooter being 
taken to them by boat aud the decoys put out. It is said to 
be but little less destructive to ihe fowl than the ordinary 
sinkbox, and is but ‘the beating of the devil round the 
stump” in waters where the sinkbox is not allowed by law. 
It really looks as if we were to have an open winter, 
Here it is almost the middle of the season, and uo snow of 
any account has thus far fallen. Let us hepe it may con- 
tinue so. Homo, 
New Jersphy.—At a mecting of the Passaic County Fish 
and Game Protective Association, at Paterson, last week, 
the draft of a new game bill was presented, no change being 
made in the periods of time in which game can be shot and 
fish caught, but giving jurisdiction in all cases to justices of 
the peace, police magistrates or justices, recorders and judges 
of district courts; the penalty provided for violations of the 
law is a fine of $25 for each and every offense. As the law 
stands now it is impossible to tell whether the proper pro- 
cedure would be by indictments—which are hard to secure 
—or before some justice of the peace, It is expected that 
the Legislature will pass this bill, as it only provides for 
scme manner of enforcing already existing Inws. Another 
bill submitted was for the preservation of song and insect- 
ivorous birds. It has been discovered that the State law 
which once protected song and insectiyorous birds had been 
repealed and that there was actuully no protection whatever 
for song birds in this State, although prosecutions have re- 
sulted in conviction under this law, The bill imposes a fine 
of $10 for every bird caught or killed and every nest robbed 
or eggs stolen or offered for sale or bird or eggs had in pos- 
session. A third bill was to protect pike, pickerel and perch, 
The biJ] prohibits the capture of these fish during the months 
of March, April and May, the three principal spawning 
months. This will allow a continuance of winter fishing 
through the ice, of which a number of persons are very 
fond. The Association has been promised the hearty co- 
operation of similar organizations and of sportsmen in other 
parts of the State in its efforts to have the laws properly pre- 
pared and then enforced. Considerable quantities of game 
are still offered for sale in the Paterson markets. The Asso- 
ciation resolved to notify the dealers that they are violating 
the law, and that they will be prosecuted unless they dis- 
pose of their stock at once. Now that the season for shoot- 
ing quail has passed it is time to purchase birds for stocking. 
As the treasury of the Association was rather run down— 
there being only about $80 left—and as this might be called 
for at any moment in looking after offenders, it was resolved 
that an independent subscription list be started. This was 
at once done and in five minutes about fifty dollars had been 
secured, This list will be passed around among the sports- 
men of the county and the birds purchased will be released 
in time for their breeding season. If shooting is not good 
in Passaic county next seuson it will not be the fault of the 
Passaic County ish and Game Protective Association. 
In Toe Curtiy Norrawnst.—A private letter from My, 
J, L. Rooney, of Spink county, Dakota, says: ‘I have just 
returned from a hunting trip on the Missouri River, where 
we found the weather too cold for sport. Wectmped ina 
tent, while the thermometer ranged from thirty-seyen to 
forty degrees below zero, We rode in a wagon over five- 
hundred miles through an open, treeless country where there 
were no settlers, and did very little shooting.” <A slip from 
a local paper says: ‘“Messrs. Mariner, Miller, Rooney and 
Hoellein returned Monday morning from their Missouri 
River hunting expedition, The party was Jaden with the 
spoils of the chase, said spoils consisting for the most part 
of frozen noses and experience. But despite the unfavorable 
weather the hunters each and all assert that they enjoyed 
the trip, They struck the Big Muddy nearly directly west 
of here and followed the course of the stream as nearly as 
practicuble, almost to the north tine of Campbell county, 
In the latter county they found extensive river flats heavily 
timbered and well stocked with game, Here they saw 
several deer and any quantity of deer tracks, but, did not 
succeed in capturing anything larger than rabbits and grouse. 
Altogether, the West Jersey Game Pro- | 
One who has lived two or three years on these treeless 
prairies can readily believe that they enjoyed camping out 
in the heavy timber where the good shelter and abundaucé 
of fuel enabled them to keep comfortable despite the extreme 
cold, The stories they tell and their descriptions of the 
country they traversed make a person feel like undertaking 
the same trip earlier in the season.” 
Tok AmMprican Forresrry Coneress has undertaken to 
issue a bi-monthly bulletin. The first regular number con- 
tains a full account of the annual meeting of the Association 
and other forestry matters, a statistical paper by Dr, Hough, 
on the lumber interests of the State of New York. Thesub- 
scription price has been fixed at $1 per year. The secretary 
is Mr. B, KE. Fernow, 18 Burling Slip, New York, 
Haein's Nest, Stamford, N. ¥.—The gun elub of Stam- 
ford, N. Y., have purchased a fine consignment of liye quail, 
which they will let loose early in March preparatory to 
stocking our section with the same. Ruffed grouse have 
been fairly plenty in the season; woodcock and snipe few 
and far between. —NrpD BUNTLINE. 
Rirne on Raperts.—I shot a rabbit, 100 yards, with my 
Stevens (.22-caliber) off-hand, short cartridge; killed him 
deader than a door nail, Who saysa.22 won’t shoot or 
kill?—C, A. J. (Richmond, Ind.). 
CaRoLina GAME ABUNDANT.—Greensboro, N. C., Jan. 5. 
—Our country is filled with quail, turkey and other game,— 
W. D. McApoo. 
Vurmont,.—Ii is reported that a deer was recently killed 
on Sutton Mountain, near Richford. 
Sea and River ishing. 
TROUT BROOKS, 
LIVE in one of the earliest settled parts of Pennsylvania, 
and the work of the enterprising farmer has long since 
driven “way all native trout. Therefore, when a neighbor 
told me a few seasons ago that there Were trout in a certain 
brook near his place, I received the information courteously; 
but with entire skepticism. I knew that trout had been 
introduced into another brook, flowing into the same stream, 
as did the brook now in question, and I supposed some 
ancient remnant of those fish had been caught there. But 
again the report of fish in the stream came from two other 
quarters, Still 1 was incredulons. At last my neighbor 
sent further word that some one had just caught four trout, 
This roused me. It certainly meant business, Before many 
days I was on the bank of the stream, and my lively worm 
was floating down the rippling current, into the deep holes 
and under the overhanging banks. My informants bad been 
correct. Trout were here without doubt, for | allured four 
of them from their hiding-places: My delight was un- 
bounded, Here were trout within 1 mile of my house, and 
I had never caught more than a dozen betore in my hfe. 
Auother visit was made a lew days later and seven were 
secured. They ranged from seven to nine inches in Jength, 
The first lot were all caught near the mouth of the stream, 
The second catch were mostly made further up, Other 
visits followed, and altovether about sixty fish were caught, 
The largest was eleven and three quarter inches in length, 
and few were under seven inches. 
The season was a very short one, for the grass completely 
overgrew the water before hot weather fairly began. 
The next fishing season was awaited with much interest, 
as I was anxious to see whether the supply would be main- 
tained. When the time came around again | was soon on 
the ground, but the numbers were much reduced. 1 only 
1ook about twenty altogether. The next season produced 
about a similar number, though the size kept up to the 
previous average. During this coming spring I propose to 
Jet. the stream entirely alone, lest the stock muy become 
altogether cxhausted, I did not confine myself to this 
stream. All the others in the neighborhood were carefully 
fished, but in none were trout found, 
Now the interesting questions are, how did the 1rout get in 
the stream o.iginally? And why do they live there and not 
in the others? 
The first question is easily answered. About twenty years 
ago a trout hatching establishment was started on one small 
branch. It soon was abandoned and the escaped fish made 
their homes in the neighboring brooks. My neighbors tell 
me that all the brooks around there abounded in trout. But 
they evidently only thrived in this one stream. Why was 
it? The probable answer is that in this stream alone was 
the water cold enough. ‘Various circumstances combine to 
secure this. Most of the springs are in woods, and ou 
northern slopes. The general course of the stream is easterly, 
across the line of the hottest sun. The meadow through 
which it flows is never pastured, and the rank swamp grass 
completely hides the water before the hot summer weather 
begins. The stream is quite a small one, its furthest spring 
being only about two miles from its mouth, in most parts it 
can be stepped across. lt is unbroken by any dams, and the 
creek into which it empties has a mile or two of unobstructed 
course in both directions from the mouth. 
The trout spend the winter in the larger creek. Here food 
of all kinds is abundant, When spring comes they make 
their way toward the little brook. They are now as fat and 
plump, and altogether excellent, as any trout can be, At first 
they frequent the lower part of the brook, then they go 
further up, By the time hot weather comes they are all up 
in the grass, where the water runs in a hidden tunnel, Here 
they live thoroughly protected from everything. Here they 
spawn, and then they drop down to the creek again. Thus 
they kept up their numbers for fifteen years, and so they 
will continue, if too many people do not find them out. 
T suppose the stream contained 150 trout when I first vis- 
ited it. Of these I secured 60. This was toomany; but I 
believe that 40 fish could be annually taken without dimin- 
ishing the supply. 
If ever trout are to be found again in the waters of the 
long settled parts of the country, it will bein the small 
brooks. The large streams are hopelessly open to the sun; 
but there are many brooks which are, or might be, as shel- 
tered as the one I have fished. As it supperts trout, so may 
hundreds of similar ones, if the fish are only started in them. 
The requisites are shaded springs, sheltered course, and un- 
broken access to larger water: j 
When our land was first cleared, the swamps were gener- 
a 
